DO NOT BE FOOLED

"For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ" (2 Jn. 1:7). Jesus taught us, as his followers, to be as wise and as innocent as possible as we live in this world carrying forth the gospel (Mat. 10:16). Satan is the great deceiver, and many people live in this world as his instruments of wickedness.

Christians, indeed, all moral, right-thinking, Constitution-rooted Americans, recognize the top-down, ramrodding, leftist, progressive agenda aimed at fundamentally changing America, regardless of the form in which it comes at us. We will not be fooled by it, submit to it, or aid and abet it. Target leaders are doing nothing more than using slippery aversion tactics to appease the masses and regain the millions of customers and dollars they have lost due to the boycott over their evil, immoral policy of allowing men to go into and use women's bathrooms in their stores.

Target leaders should know that adding single-stall, locking bathrooms to their stores is a weak, miserable substitute for doing the right thing--reversing their ridiculous bathroom policy-- specifically, making their men's bathrooms for men and boys only and making their women's bathrooms for women and girls only, AND that means men and boys who were born males and women and girls who were born females. Until Target does the right thing, Christians will stay the course.

LET GOD BE TRUE, AND EVERY HUMAN BEING A LIAR (Rom. 3:4).

At the root of the sins represented by the "LGB" in LGBTQ is some human beings being deceived by the satanic assault against God's created order, which God called good. After God created the first man, Adam, and placed him in the Garden of Eden, He said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him" (Gen. 2:18). God did not make another man for Adam because He judged that another man would not be "suitable for him." Therefore, "the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, He took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man and he brought her to the man. . . . For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh" (Gen. 2:21-22, 24). Having made the husband and his wife according to His own will and purpose, God blessed Adam and Eve and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth" (Gen. 1:28). God made Adam a wife, Eve, and, by doing so, established the boundary of human sexual expression to be between husbands and wives within the state of marriage.

At the root of the sins represented by the "TQ" in LGBTQ is some human beings being deceived by the satanic assault against God's sovereign right to create human beings in his own image. During the first five days of creation, God made the heavens and the earth, all vegetation and seed bearing plants and trees each after its own kind, the sun and moon and stars and the birds and sea creatures each after its own kind (Gen. 1:1-23). On the sixth day of creation after He created the land creatures each after its own kind, "God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. . . . When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them 'Mankind' when they were created" (Gen. 1:27; 5:1-2).

In the same way God made the sun to be and stay the sun and never to be or become the moon; in the same way God made the grass to be and stay the grass and never to be or become an apple tree or a live oak; in the same way God created the eagle to be and stay an eagle and never to be or become a dolphin; in the same way God created the monkey to be and stay a monkey and never to be or become a human being; God also created man to be and stay man and never to be or become woman. Likewise, God created woman to be and stay woman and never to be or become man. God made human beings exactly the way he wanted them to be and, by doing so, established the boundary of human gender--boys being boys and girls being girls; men being men and women being women. Any attempt by human beings to deviate from God's created order is the very work of Satan through human beings to destroy what God Almighty created and called good. However, do not be dismayed. We have the promise of God's word to encourage us: "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows" (Gal. 6:7).

THE LANGUAGE OF PRAISE

Have you ever noticed how often we blindly mouth the words, "Praise God," "Hallelujah," "Praise the Lord" and "Glory to God" without declaring definitively what we're praising God for? How sad our state becomes when even our praise to God becomes merely "Christianese." Survey the Psalms and note, almost without exception, when the psalmists praise God, they include the attribute, character trait, wisdom, teaching, or deed for which they are giving God praise.

In doing so, the biblical writers give us the correct format and formula for our praise. They also demonstrate that we are better stewards of our minds, hearts, mouths and lives when we use them to cheer for God rather than complain to God. Juan Carlos Ortiz stings us with this soul-searching truth: "As far as God is concerned, there are only two languages in this world: the language of His Kingdom and the language of the kingdom of darkness. The first is the language of praise. The second is the language of complaint. Praise recognizes virtue. Complaint criticizes virtue. And every human being speaks one language or the other" [Disciple, (Carol Stream, IL: Creation House, 1975), 69].

SIN'S PROGRESSION REQUIRES TRUTH'S SUPPRESSION

In order to live on in sin, a person must throw out God's truth and establish an untrue truth, a lie, and then live that lie as though it is the truth. This is not new. Consider the words of the apostle John: "This, then, is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed" (Jn. 3:19-20).

Furthermore, the apostle Paul reminds us that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness" (Rom. 1:18). Why and how do people suppress the truth? Answer: Because of and by their unrighteousness.

Mike Minter, in his book A Western Jesus: The Wayward Americanization of Christ and the Church, said, "No one rejects truth for no reason. No one rejects truth with their intellect; they reject truth with their [ungodly] morality" (72). Again, the only way to continue living a lifestyle of sin is to keep God's truth suppressed by believing and living a lie as though it's the truth.

REASON VS. REVELATION

"Where there is no vision (revelation), the people perish" (Prov. 29:18).

"Reason is the natural human ability to negotiate the issues of life by employing logic (the science of the principles of reason) and intellect. . . . Reason is a gift from God given to unbelievers as well as believers, and without it, life would not only be hard, it would be impossible. . . . Revelation, however, takes us into another world. . . . The Bible is a book of revelation in that it tells us what human reason could never tell us, . . . Without revelation, man is left wandering around the globe trying to figure out the mysteries of life with his reason, but reason does not take us into this realm. It's off-limits for the human mind." -- Mike Minter, in his book, A Western Jesus: The Wayward Americanization of Christ and the Church, 57-58.

WIDE AWAKE, YET SOUND ASLEEP

Our world today is wide awake, yet sound asleep. We have all-night television, 24-hour news cycles, television psychiatrists, and non-stop music. The majority of our population walks around staring down at a cell phone screen instead of watching where they're going or engaging others in meaningful conversation. Commercials, sit-coms, reality shows, and internet pop-ups relentlessly and shamelessly traffic unrestrained sexual encounters, homosexuality, and sexual immorality in general for the purpose of desensitizing people to behaviors and lifestyles that are impure, unholy, and forbidden by God in the Bible. This raunchy sexually-explicit programming tempts people at the lowest, degrading level. Have a problem? Turn the channel and see what Dr. So-and-so has to say about it. Got an ache? Grab a pill, get drunk, smoke a joint, or shoot-up. These are the philosophies that, unfortunately, get too many people through their days. Anything that keeps people from being alone with their own thoughts or intentionally thinking deeply on the subject of their choices, lifestyles, and the real meaning of life. Oh no, that would eventually lead them to consider the truth and claims of Jesus Christ, and Satan will not stand for that. Neither, incidentally, will the liberal, left-wing progressives that control mainstream media in all its forms in this country.

Moreover, we have a government filled with gutless, immoral, ungodly politicians addicted to their wealth, power, and status who will believe anything, go along with anything, say anything, and do anything to get elected and keep their positions. These unfit so-called public servants have the repugnant audacity to demand that what has always been right is now wrong and what has always been wrong is now right for the sake of political correctness and maintaining the status quo. Who, in their right mind, would ever believe that, in the greatest nation that has ever existed on planet Earth, we would have to listen to a president and politicians try to convince us to shut up and go along while they make it legal for a boy or man who wakes up with male genitalia but feels like (self-identifies as) a female go into and use the girls' bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers in our schools and all across this nation where our precious daughters, wives, sisters, aunts, mothers, and grandmothers have the right to the expectation of privacy? I’m afraid this is just another in a long list of idiotic changes that our president had in mind when he came into office with the intent to fundamentally change our nation.

Here's a news flash: This is the United States of America. We're a rough and rugged people who know our history. We are still a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people. We are under absolutely no obligation to maintain what is politically correct or go along with the status quo when either or both is blatantly unconstitutional, unbiblical, ungodly, wicked, sinful, and plain stupid. We were founded upon Judeo-Christian laws, teachings, and values, and no amount of reckless, brazenfaced executive orders or systematic, underhanded rewriting of textbooks or senseless, top-down common core curriculum or midnight-released, cowardly threats disguised as guidelines aimed at social engineering in our nation’s school systems can change the facts. We owe our status and prosperity, as a nation, to God and to his providence. Therefore, God, the sovereign ruler and judge of all nations, will have the last say on America.

We, as Christians, believe that the Bible is God's word and is completely sufficient to live by and to measure every thought and idea. America is a constitutional republic, a nation of laws, with guiding documents which, in their original intent, give our three branches of government and body-politic its limits and responsibilities. Even more, we do not cow down, shrink back, and allow bullies with idiotic ideals and ideas run rough-shod over our constitution and over we, the people—the law abiding, hard-working, God-fearing citizens of this great nation—regardless of whether those bullies hold the highest offices in the land.

In the Bible, we find this admonition, "This is what the Lord says: 'Do what is just and right,'" (Jeremiah 22:3) and by God's grace and with his wise counsel, strength, power, and Spirit, that's exactly what we, as Christians, intend to do. Yes, by the wisdom, power, and might of the Spirit of God, we fight the world—the system of evil that has so thoroughly permeated our culture; the flesh—the sinful nature, propensity toward sin, inherited by every single person from Adam and Eve; and the devil—the archenemy of God and his people. Therefore, for the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, the dignity and everlasting good of our nation, and the present and eternal safety of our souls, we better wake up from our terminal addictions to all things politically-correct, technologically-fascinating, attention-grabbing, and humanly-degrading, and cry out to Jesus Christ in true repentance seeking his forgiveness, restoration, and salvation.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces during World War II and 34th President of the United States, said, “Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed—else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die” (www.watchmenofamerica.com/OctoberNewsletter.pdf). We better oppose all forms of government-imposed socialism, vote the biblical, reasonable, common-sense values that made America great, and make certain the people we elect to lead us are selfless servants instead of selfish usurpers. May God have mercy on the United States of America.

TAKE A LOAD OFF!

"God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, . . . has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ" (2 Cor. 5:18-20).

Very few professing Christians are actually engaged in consistent, intentional evangelism. Explanations are endless: fear of confrontation and rejection, insufficient biblical knowledge, busyness, lack of training, no confidence, extreme shyness, and void of spiritual giftedness just to name a few. Yet, what if the real reason has more to do with wrong expectations and misplaced burdens?

No doubt Jesus called his followers to evangelize others. Speaking to the townspeople of Lystra, Paul and Barnabas said, "We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and everything in them" (Acts 14:15). Solomon exhorted, "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise wins souls" (Prov. 11:30).

The problem, however, is not is recognizing the call to evangelize others; it is in perceiving the true definition of evangelism. Christians do not have the ability to "save" anyone. Jesus himself said definitively, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day" (Jn. 6:44). Clearly, Jesus is the one who saves. However, professing Christians engaged in witnessing often burden themselves, perhaps unintentionally, with "securing the decision." Nothing less, in other words, is success except making sure the person prays to receive Christ as Lord. Although genuine repentance of sin, belief in the atoning death and resurrection of Christ, and complete surrender to Jesus is certainly the goal of evangelism, the misguided pressure to say the right words and make sure a person "gets saved" is a foolish, unnecessary, and heavy burden that Jesus never called his followers to carry.

Evangelism is a cooperative work. With love, sincerity, and passion, the follower of Jesus engages in the ministry of reconciliation by bearing witness to the person and work of Christ (Acts 1:8). He or she shares the gospel of salvation (Rom. 1:16). The nature and law of God, sin and condemnation of man, sacrificial death and miracle resurrection of Jesus, and the redemption and new life of the sinner frame the conversation. Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, convinces the unsaved person of the truth being shared by the witness and then brings conviction of sin and persuasion of the need for salvation. The grace of God enables the sinner to believe, repent, and surrender his or her life to Jesus as Lord. If a person willfully and knowingly resists and rejects the grace of God that would save him, he is not rejecting the witness; he is rejecting Jesus (Jn. 3:18).

Consequently, the Christian's responsibility is to bear witness. Jesus' responsibility is to save. After Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, he ascended back to heaven. Prior to leaving, he left his disciples definite instructions: "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Mat. 28:18-20). Why would Jesus say he would be with his disciples always? Because they had no power in themselves to save any person. Their job was to disciple (lead) people to Christ by bearing witness and then teach those who become followers of Jesus how to live faithfully to Jesus. Jesus, present with his disciples always, would hold them accountable to being his witnesses and then do the regenerating work of salvation in those who believe the message of reconciliation spoken by his disciples.

So, Christian, take that foolish, unnecessary, and heavy load off your shoulders and simply go into the world, bear witness of the gospel, and depend of Jesus to save all who believe (Jn. 3:16).